Posts

And Why You Shouldn’t Play

Big words are a turnoff for most customers and make our offer sound like a Dilbert cartoon. So why do we use them when short words would do just fine? Who are we trying to impress?

Does monosyllabic really need five sounds? We’re in love with all things “Big”, and just assume big words make us sound more polished. But really they make us sound more like Dilbert’s boss. The worst culprits are vision statements, mission statements and “give-me-money” plans. But I see buzzwords in a lot of fancy attempts to sell things, too.

Dilbert and Woody Allen
Too much biz stuff sounds like it really was written by Scott Adams for a Dilbert cartoon. It’s meant to make us sound thoughtful, but instead it’s funny because it’s either tortured, fake, complex, a stretch, dumb, or just plain baffling. When we string one fancy word after the other, we sound more like a Woody Allen tirade than an expert in our field. It really just cheapens our image and makes us look uptight.

The Rule of Short Words
When writing a vision, mission, plan or sales copy, here’s a writing rule;

Be wary of any word with three or more sounds, chiefly those that contain any of the following letters: u, v, w, x, y, and z.

It’s not that you can’t use them, just be wary; test them and make sure you aren’t playing buzzword bingo and trying to sound smart. If there is a matching word with two or less sounds that works as well, use it.

Sound Like An Expert or Be One – You Choose
Here’s some classic terms used to play buzzword bingo, and simple words to use instead. All are three or more sounds and contain u, v, w, x, y, or z. Some of the worst are words ending in “ize”. The big words make you sound like an expert. The short ones might convince people you really are.

One Simple Thing

For years I’ve been hunting down reasons why people are successful, or why they aren’t. In the last few weeks an over-arching single reason seems to be forming for me.

The Long List of Success Attributes
If you break it down to the smaller reasons, there are so many why people succeed – clarity of vision, solid values/beliefs/principles, speed of execution, commitment (never giving up), discipline, getting back up/bouncing back, taking good risks vs bad risks (& knowing the difference), being organized, optimistic, being flexible, embracing challenge, seeing the big picture, rising above offense, seeing yourself as successful, being willing to be wrong often…

…and so many more.

The One Big Success Attribute
But as I look at the long list of things that make people successful or keep them stuck, they almost all seem to roll up under one simple, over-arching reason. I’ve been testing it against all the other reasons for weeks, and can’t find one that doesn’t fit under the one big one.

The reason we get where we want to go or don’t is simply this:

Short-term vs. long-term decision-making.

Not very glamorous, but absolutely transformative if you embrace it.

People who make their decisions based on what will help in the short-term are almost never successful. People who make decisions based on what will be best in the long run are almost always successful. Is it that simple? Let’s test it and see.

Testing It Out
Take a look at the list of success attributes above (or any of the dozens I haven’t mentioned) and ask yourself which ones are based on short-term gain and which ones are based on the long-term gain. Success attributes are all about the long-term.

In stark contrast, the following reasons for failure all help us address short-term symptoms, but keep us right where we are:
– survival: I have payroll to make
– feelings: I don’t feel like doing that right now
– fear: I’m afraid they won’t like me, or I might fail
– lack of discipline: shiny object syndrome – oooh! – let’s do that, TOO!
– being tired: the #1 reason businesses fail
– lack of learning: we’re too busy DOING to be learning
– inflexibility: change is messy, we’ll just row over the falls
– lack of vision: I’m too busy making chairs for that woo-woo crap

…and on and on. We do them all for one very simple reason. We are short-sighted and not thinking about how we will ever get to where we want to be.

Ask yourself two long-term questions:

1) What would I be doing right now if I weren’t (in survival, afraid, undisciplined, tired, etc – put your own short-term problem here)?
2) Am I making decisions based on where I am, or where I want to be?

Decisions based on what helps me now, create long-term failure. Long-term success is based on a life pattern of making many small, daily decisions, one after another, that stack up to success down the road.

Do you value being on the treadmill the rest of your life, making decisions that address short-term symptoms but never solve the long-term problems? Or do you value getting off the treadmill and living a life of success and significance?

You Are Not a Victim of the Short Straw
In business and in life, the short straw is not a guessing game. Nobody’s fist is hiding it. The long straw and the short straw are both laying on the table right in front of us. If we want to be successful we will see clearly that short-term decision-making is just willingly picking the short straw instead of the long one.

Make one decision today that will make you more successful later. It likely won’t make you any money or save you any time TODAY (short-term). But it just might change your life down the road.

Truth & Consequences.

A few years ago I spent a day finishing my first book, because I wanted to go to New Zealand 21 months later. If I didn’t do it that day, the trip was in jeopardy. Why? Because the Long Pole of Success is very predictable.

Imagine a mile long pole you’re holding against your stomach, and someone else is holding the other end against their stomach, and the goal is to shake hands without them having to move.

What happens if you take one step toward them? If you both keep the pole against your stomachs, a mile away they will have to take a step back. You’ll never shake hands that way. If the game is to keep the pole directly in front of you, the only way to get there is to start cutting off lengths of the pole. Cut off enough and you eventually end up where they are without them having to move.

I’ll just do it tomorrow
The Long Pole of Success illustrates why today is so important to getting to your objective months or years from now. Too often, “the future” looks far enough off that we feel we can ignore it for now and just pay attention to it later.

To finish my book I needed one solid eight hour day. On Tuesday, June 2 a few years ago, I looked at my 2-Page Strategic Plan and saw that I was supposed to be done with the chapter by May 31. The next day, Wednesday, June 3, was supposed to be a gorgeous 80 degree day and I had no appointments. Memorial Day weekend’s weather blew chunks so I was going to make up for it with golf and a bike ride on Wednesday. But now I had a choice to make – finish the book or enjoy the day.

My Business Maturity Date, with a 3 1/2 week celebration trip to New Zealand, was 21 months off. The book was one of a number of strategic things I needed to accomplish to make it to my BMD, which included taking Fridays and the last week of every month off after I hit that date.

I looked at my schedule and realized that it would be at least six weeks before I had another full day to finish the chapter. Doing it in 1-2 hour pieces just didn’t work for me – I needed to be able to focus and get it all knocked out at once or it likely wouldn’t flow well.

Cutting off a chunk of the pole
I had a Long Pole of Success decision to make. Since finishing the book was one of many strategic keys to hitting my BMD, putting off the completion of this chapter for six weeks would push back the publishing date of the book by six weeks, and potentially push back my BMD 21 months later, by that same six weeks.

To keep the BMD from moving, I had to cut off a length of the Long Pole on Wednesday and get the book done. I finished the book and the other strategic things we needed to do in order to build a business that would run while we’re on vacation (hiring people, putting processes in place, etc.). 21 months later we left for New Zealand to celebrate our BMD, on the exact day we hat targeted almost four years earlier.

Today Matters
When things seem a long way off, we don’t see much issue with putting off doing something that might just impact that seemingly far off goal. But the fact is that every time we turn today into tomorrow without completing the strategic things that will build our business, we automatically push back success by one day.

And it’s really hard to make it up later. With the pole tucked into your stomach, you can’t reach 50 yards in front of you and cut off a big chunk all at once a few months from now. The only way to do it without delaying success down the road, is to cut off small pieces regularly every week.

Success is quite predictable
The Long Pole of Success is unforgiving. Either regularly cut it off in small pieces or expect to push off success by each day that you don’t do the small and simple things that will eventually get you there. But success is actually quite predictable, if you’re doing the right thing. Chipping away at the Long Pole will very predictably get you to your goal.

Next year, will you end up where you are?
Are you making decisions based on where you are, or where you want to be? Think about the Long Pole of Success the next time you say, “I’ve got a whole year. I can do that strategic thing tomorrow.”

Know the Difference – Grow Your Business

There is a lot of Business Buzzword Bingo out there around these two words, but they are too important to your success to get them confused.

Strategies answer “How”
Specifically two “how” questions; “How do we make money?” and “How do we lead?” Your strategies cover how you think you’ll make money over the next one to three years.

Direct Revenue – Each way you make money should be described as a separate Direct Revenue: strategy, as long as you market and invoice for it differently. If you market furniture differently than floors or to a different audience, list these as separate Strategies for how you make money. If you invoice differently for restoration then for new construction, or to a different audience, they are separate Strategies. Sofas and chairs with different prices but that are marketed to the same audience are one Direct Revenue stream – furniture.

We have multiple Direct Revenue streams – 3to5 Clubs for business owners worldwide, books, workshops, keynotes, one2one consulting and online apps. Since your Strategies should list how you will make money for the next one to three years, we also list some things we aren’t doing yet but plan to add to our quiver over the next three years. Some businesses will have just one or two Strategies – like 1) plumbing repair and 2) new construction plumbing. Or even just one – mortgages.

Indirect Revenue – A second type of Strategy. For small and local businesses, we should largely replace the word Marketing, with the phrase Indirect Revenue. Big business spends a lot of marketing money on things like “brand recognition”. For most of us, we need to think of marketing more as Indirect Revenue. If you can’t track revenue clearly back to your marketing, think twice about doing it. You can’t afford brand recognition; your marketing should cause people to buy stuff.

How We Lead – The last kind of Strategy you need to articulate – a simple 1-2 sentences or a short list of words how you intend to lead your business. It’s very important to have a simple leadership Strategy that guides the way you make decisions.

All of this should take no more than two-thirds of a page. If you get wordy, you’ll never apply this. Complexity breeds confusion.

Objectives answer “Who”, “What” and “When”
Objectives are radically different than Strategies. Once you know how you make money and how you lead, your Objectives will put rubber on the road. Strategies are not measurable and don’t assign responsibility or concrete timelines. But Objectives should ALWAYS be measurable, assign responsibility and define exactly when they should be accomplished. Your Strategy says How you make money; your Objectives make it real.

Take each of your Strategies and attach Objectives for who owns them, what exact amounts or numbers will define success, and when you will have them done. A Strategy would say, “we make furniture”, but the corresponding Objective would be “We made 2,000 chairs in 2012 and will increase that by 50% in 2013, to 3,000 chairs. John is responsible for the marketing, Fred for the production, Sally for the etc., and we intend first to increase by 250 extra chairs produced by March 30, 2013.”

If you can’t measure it, know who owns it, and say when it will be done, it’s not an Objective. If you can, and you run your business with the intent of completing each Objective attached to each Strategy, you’re likely to be successful. Make sure you have at least one annual Objective to get you off the treadmill – “I worked xx hours a week last year, and intend to work xx hours (less) this year. I’ll be 20% of the way there in the first three months.”

A Little Bit Every Week
If I could just get business owners to set aside a couple hours a week to push their intentional Objectives forward, instead of following the Random Hope “we gotta make some money this week” plan, we would have a lot more successful businesses out there.

/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/logo-2.png00chuckblakeman/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/logo-2.pngchuckblakeman2012-12-01 03:18:092016-01-15 20:01:12A Strategy is Not an Objective

Why you need both.

Vision and Mission are two very different things. And the smaller your business, the more you need them both. Those who have both and live by them always make more money.

Whether you think you do or not, we all run our businesses based on deeply held beliefs. The problem is we don’t do it consistently, but only when it’s convenient. The rest of the time we’re taking on clients, employees, vendors and partners based on the immediate benefit, without regard to whether there is a culture and values match or not. Six months or a year later we’re butting heads with the new staff, avoiding that troubling client, or looking for a new vendor.

Why? Because if you don’t have a clear vision for your own life or business, you’ll become part of someone else’s vision for theirs. Take on a a partner, employee or staff member with a strong direction, and it will overwhelm the weak hold you have on why you exist, where you are going and how you intend to get there. Meandering and random hope are not good business strategies. Get a grip on your vision and your mission, or expect to be pulled in every direction.

Vision = Values
Your Vision statement is for YOU, not for your customers. It is much bigger than your business, reflects your personal beliefs and values and is what would get you out of bed every morning no matter what business you were in. Your beliefs, values and principles don’t change based on your business. Your Vision statement should be the core driver behind who you hire, who you want as clients, and how you will relate your business to the world around you. In most cases, a Vision statement doesn’t tell anybody what you do, only what you believe and value as a business.

This should always be a values-based statement. It’s about your beliefs. Our vision statement for Crankset Group and 3to5 Club is “Live well by doing good.” We could be grocers and say the same thing, because it’s what gets us out of bed every morning. We can unpack that for you for three to four Guinnesses, as to how it impacts every aspect of our business.

Your vision is all about you, and what you believe. It drives you, your staff and all of your relationships forward. You may or may not share it publicly. It doesn’t matter – it’s not for your customer, but for you. Every decision, big and small, should be based on your Vision statement. Every one.

Mission = Marching Orders
Your Mission statement is radically different. It’s not about you in any way – leave yourself out of it. It’s all about your customer and the OUTCOME you expect to give them. Here’s a lousy Mission statement: “We will be the #1 pencil manufacturer with the best quality, highest profitability and the fastest growth.”NOBODY cares.

When people ask “What do you do?” they never mean it. They mean, “What can you do for ME?” When someone reads your Mission statement, they should know exactly what OUTCOME you are going to get them, not what you do.

Our Mission statement, “We provide tools for business owners to make more money in less time, get off the treadmill, and get back to the passion that brought them into business in the first place.” From that, you would never know that we build 3to5 Clubs around the world, have cloud apps, sell books, do workshops and keynote talks and have a sales development series called FasTrak. That’s because nobody cares what we do until they find out what we can do for them.

An OUTCOME is a RESULT expressed EMOTIONALLY. Your Mission statement should give some quick info about what industry you are in, but 95% of it should be about what you will do for me. If I like that potential result, I’ll ask you how you will do it. That’s your cue to talk about your capabilities, quality, growth, etc.

Do you have clients, staff or vendors you’re not happy about? Are you changing courses often? Having trouble finding that one product or service that drives your revenue and growth? It’s almost certainly because you don’t have a clear Vision or Mission statement.

Winging it has it’s consequences. Figure out what drives you (Vision) and what outcome you’re delivering (Mission) and watch your business grow.